By Rick Parrish, AVP of Clinical Implementation
Sponsored – Regard– June 2024 – The Journal of Healthcare Contracting
The COVID-19 pandemic brought substantial supply chain disruptions to the healthcare ecosystem and the ripple effects have continued through labor shortages. According to a workforce study conducted by NCSBN and the National Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers, throughout the pandemic, approximately 100,000 nurses left the workforce. Also noted in the study, almost 900,000 nurses intend to leave the workforce by 2027, threatening the national health care system at large if solutions are not enacted.
Labor shortages are straining healthcare providers and negatively impacting nurse satisfaction and patient care. As a result of these shortages, clinicians are now having to perform non-standard job responsibilities, like managing, organizing and tracking down supplies. To reduce this burden for staff, it’s critical for healthcare providers to work with a medical supply partner offering creative solutions so clinicians can perform their most important job responsibility: taking care of patients.
Regard, a provider-owned medical supply manufacturer, has expertise in mitigating against unprecedented disruptions and providing solutions. Regard addresses challenges stemming from healthcare’s workforce crisis, which includes creating efficiencies through integrated kitting solutions. These kits bundle all the essential items for a procedure under one stock keeping unit (SKU) – limiting product variation, reducing non-clinical tasks and standardizing care for improved nurse satisfaction and patient outcomes.
Limiting Product Variation
When nurses are asked to use a variety of products for the same clinical task across multiple care units, they can have trouble adhering to procedural protocols. Ever-changing products can cause errors and frustration, especially with standard tasks like blood draws, which should be consistent no matter where the nurse is working. Regard’s blood draw and blood collection kits, for example, bundle all the required and preferred items for blood collection in one SKU so nurses experience less obstacles and more consistency during their workday.
Reducing Non-Clinical Tasks
Time is precious in healthcare, and for patients with conditions such as cardiac arrest, every minute’s delay in resuscitation can lead to a drop in successful outcomes by 7-10%. That’s why it is critical that nurses have the right supplies at the right time. However, nurses often spend too much time restocking supplies. For example, when nurses can easily restock a code cart drawer with one Regard kit SKU vs 80 individual SKUs they’ll spend more time on important clinical duties instead of supply chain tasks, leading to increased satisfaction and improved outcomes. In addition, the Regard code cart drawer kit offers electronic tools to easily track expiration dates for greater quality and regulatory compliance.
Standardizing Care
Standardizing supplies and having comfort items in patient admission kit leads to uniform and high-quality experiences for patients. With the same personal hygiene items bundled in kit, for instance, healthcare providers can ensure each patient’s care experience is consistent across facilities and care units. This means they’ll have more time to focus on making patients comfortable and enhancing patient experience instead of tracking down various supplies upon admission.
Regard doesn’t just provide kits. We have a team dedicated to adding value by enhancing supply chain processes and addressing healthcare providers’ most urgent challenges. By working closely with providers amid today’s difficult labor environment, Regard creates tailored and cost-effective solutions that enhance outcomes, boost efficiencies, and most importantly, allow clinicians to practice at the top of their license.
Are your nurses spending more time managing inventory than they are on clinical tasks? Learn more about Regard’s integrated kitting solutions at regardsupplies.com.